


Stars in His Heart

by hunters_retreat



Category: Supernatural RPF
Genre: Boys in Space, IN SPACE!, M/M, Space Frontier AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-25
Updated: 2016-12-25
Packaged: 2018-09-12 12:18:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,655
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9071263
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hunters_retreat/pseuds/hunters_retreat
Summary: Jensen isn't quite what he seems, but neither is the captain of the ship that just landed in the illegal port outside of town.





	

**Author's Note:**

> written for the spn_j2_xmas exchange on LJ for cassiopeia7.

 

Jensen wass more a librarian than a law man.  He still wasn't quite sure how they managed to pin the star on him, but there it was, on his lapel and instead of sitting behind a desk in a quiet library all day, Jensen was reading a book at the Sheriff’s Station.

Behind the sheriff’s desk, no less.

He adjusted his glasses as he continued to catch up on the news from the Central Isles.  He might be sheriff of some Backwater planet, but he liked to think a little civilization reached their small corner of the galaxy.  They might not have the fine ballets and opera houses of the Isle planets, but Jensen had learned to appreciate the quaint music and theater of the Backwaters.

Just last week he’d seen a production of Shumala’s Faces of Bonwhen that could have made any Isler weep.

“Sheriff!”

Jensen looked up at his deputy came running into the room.  The man should have been sheriff in Jensen’s place, but when his predecessor had passed, the city council had decided to give the job to Jensen, whether he wanted it or not.  Apparently the deputy was too hard for them to control.

On that count, they had been wrong.  Jensen liked his quiet, but he wasn’t above making noise.  No one had known him well enough then to understand that.  They knew now and they were sorry they’d given him the star that day.

“What’s the problem, Deputy?”

“New ship just landed outside of town.”

It was an illegal port, but Jensen wasn’t bothered by it.  Jensen could appreciate what the Central Isle’s stood for, even if he didn’t agree with everything they did.  Like the taxation of anything coming in and out of the Backwaters.

“What’s the problem there, Victor?”

“The name of the ship would be the problem, Sheriff.”

“Why is that?”

“It’s the Hunter.”

Jensen sat up when he heard the name.  “Here?  What is the Hunter doing here?”

“Smuggling?  Looting? Killing us all and burning the entire town to the ground?”

Jensen let out a deep breath.  “I think you’d better keep an eye on your imagination.  The Hunter is a smuggler ship.  Nothing more.”

“I’ve heard more stories than that, Jensen.”

“Rumor.  If the crew of the Hunter is as crazy as you say, then no one would be alive to tell the stories.”

“What do you want me to do then?” the deputy asked.

“Just keep an eye on things here,” he said.  He stood and grabbed the guns from his drawer and filled his holster.  “I’ll go visit the Hunter and see what their intentions are.”

“This ain’t gonna go well, Sheriff.”

“Maybe not, but I’m not afraid of the captain.  The crew will be filling their glasses by now.  I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to see to this captain of theirs.”

“Sheriff-”

“Keep the peace, Deputy.  I’ll be back by dawn.”

**

It was an hour on horseback -  an hour Jensen would normally take in order to save the tax payers the outrageous price the Isles charged for fuel – but tonight Jensen took the racer out to the illegal port.  He was there within 15 minutes and he pulled his gloves off his fingers one by one as he looked up at the ship.  The Hunter was a affine ship by any standard.  She was sleek and well cared for, spacious enough to cargo but with enough rooms to take on passengers.  It was also rumored that she had enough smuggling compartments carved into her belly that she looked like a honeycomb.

Jensen knew that wasn’t true, but he also knew there were plenty of compartments that the law wasn’t supposed to know about.

“You done staring at my ship?”

The man that came down the ramp was everything he’d expect from the nefarious reputation given to the captain of the Hunter.  He was tall and handsome – rumor said he was favored by the whoring establishments and Jensen could see why with his own eyes – and he was built for a fight.  Strong arms and large hands, muscular legs that he had no trouble showing off with his tight trousers and clinging shirt.  The smile on his face was warm though and there was a curious light in his eyes that made a lie of his reputation.

Except that wasn’t true either because Captain Jared Padalecki had a well-earned reputation.  Even if it wasn’t quite what the locals thought.

“My deputy came running into town to tell me the Hunter had found a way to our illegal port.  Seemed that was something the sherriff should see with his own eyes,” Jensen answered.

“You’re the sheriff?”

“Does that surprise you?”

“I see the star on your lapel, but I heard the lawman in these parts was really a librarian.”

Jensen smiled.  “I don’t look like a librarian?”

“Well, I suppose with those glasses you could pull it off, but not so sure about the rest of it.   A bit too much muscle for a man of learning.”

“Maybe its from all the books I heft around.”

“Maybe it’s from the weight of the lies you tell.  How the hell did you convince them to make you a sheriff, Jensen?”

Jensen laughed as he stomped up the ramp and threw his arms around the captain.  “Hell of a story.  Glad to see you Jared.  What the hell are you doing here?”

Jared’s arms tightened round Jensen’s waist and he was pulled in a little closer than was appropriate but he didn’t pull away.  When Jared finally let go, Jensen stepped back with a smile.

“Come on in.  Got a bottle or two of the good stuff hidden away for just such an occasion.”

 

**

 

If there was one thing that could be said of Jared, he never put out a cold welcome.  As soon as Jensen sat down, Jared began to set the table with breads and cheese and fruits of all kinds.  His glass was filled with Isle brandy and it was never empty.

“You don’t have to booze me up to keep me here, Jared.  You’ve got a story to tell and I intend to hear it.”

“You first,” Jared said as he pulled a chair up beside Jensen.  “Last I heard you were on the outer edge of the universe doing research.  Then all of a sudden I hear of a sheriff that knows what’s really out here.  Someone that understands what having a reputation is all about.”

Jensen rolled his eyes at that.  Some smugglers got reputations because they were willing to deal in the worse possible business.  Some got reputations because they dealt with the things no one else wanted to admit were out there.  Jensen had done dealings with both in his years traveling the stars.

“Had a little trouble with a pack of werewolves.  People in these parts had no idea what they were.  By the time I got it taken care of, they decided I would make a good sheriff and pin the star on me before I realized it.”

“Why did you stay?”

“Train up my replacement.  Victor’s a hell of a lawman, but he needed a little educating about the things that go bump out on the edges of space.”

“That’s why you stayed?”

“Mostly, no.  I stayed because an old hunter outside of town.  Best damn research library I ever laid eyes on.  Beaver’s not just got vids and data files on just about anything you could want, but he’s got actual hard copy books too.  Centuries of hand me down knowledge have left half the lore incomprehensible.  You can’t believe the things I’ve learned since I got here.”

“You gonna memorize his whole library?”

“Got him to let me put it all in data files so I could take it with me.  Scans of the actual books and diagrams.  Everything a hunter could need.  If I had a year and a space to work, I could make a real database out of this.”

“Sounds like you need someplace that won’t keep you too busy.  Maybe someplace that doesn’t have a star attached to it,” Jared suggested.

“Someplace I can work most of my day away, someplace that would respect my work and how I contribute,” Jensen added.  It was a little much to hope for, but Jared was putting off some signals that Jensen really hoped he was reading right.

Jared pushed his chair away from the table and leaned forward, his elbows on his knees as he looked down at his hands.

“It’s not always a quiet life, but you know I’ve always got room for you, Jensen.  If you stayed with me on the Hunter, you’d have to work with the rest of the crew, but your main job would be the research you’re so damn good at.”

“That’s it?  You’re just going to throw that out there, pretend there isn’t a world full of reason why this won’t work?  The history we got?”

Jared looked up at him and let out a deep sigh.  “I was sort of hopin’ the history would help sell it.  We left things in a bad place Jensen, but it wasn’t because you and I aren’t good together.  You wanted something and I couldn’t see past my broken heart to realize it wasn’t a bad thing.”

“You say that like you can see it now.”

“What I see is that you needed to do more research to keep us safe and I was too pig headed to realize there was something more than just the way we’d always done things.  Just because our fathers taught us how to do it one way, doesn’t make it the only way.  You were right to want to learn more.  It took a few years, but I figured it out.”

“A few years and a pretty fierce reputation.”

Jared smiled at that.  “My crew is a pretty mixed bunch these days.  Human.  Angel.  Demon.  Even got a werewolf on the books that I use for research from time to time.  People see us coming and they run the other way.”

“Sounds like a crazy bunch for a hunter to work with.”

“Yeah, but someone taught me that supernatural isn’t evil, it’s just different.  There are bad men in the universe and bad creatures.  I hunt those that hurt others, not those that are different.  I think you’d like my gang if you gave ‘em a chance.”

Jensen took a long drink of his brandy before he set it on the table.  “Truth be told, I’m getting a little tired of the dust on this world.  I miss the cold of space.”

“I could show you the space you could keep as your office,” Jared offered.

“I’d prefer to be shown the space I’d be keeping warm at night,” Jensen countered.

Jared stood without hesitation and offered Jensen a hand.  He took it and didn’t let go as Jared led him away from the galley and towards the crew’s quarters.  He walked past them and pressed his hand into the panel to open the captain’s quarters.

They were spacious for a ship’s quarters.  Jared had taken two rooms and made them his own when he’d first bought the Hunter.  Jensen remembered the first night aboard it, after the modifications had been made and the captain’s quarters had been turned into a suite large enough for the both of them to live in.

The room hadn’t changed much at all in the years since Jensen had left.

 “Those better be clean sheets,” Jensen said as Jared pulled him close.

“I heard the sheriff around these parts was awful pretty.  Changed ‘em just after we landed.  In case the rumors about him were true.”

“What rumors would those be?”

“That he’s a hellion.  That no matter how the Town’s Elders wanted to control him, he did what he knew was right.  That he was tenacious with his research and he made a reputation of being  a man in the know, even in these barren parts.  And that he got the most curmudgeonly of hunters to share his research just so he could pass it along to others.”

“Sounds about right.”

“That he was ready to leave this dustball behind and do some real work.”

“Who told you that?”

“You ain’t the only one that can get a curmudgeonly hunter to talk.”

“You know Beaver?” Jensen asked in surprise.

“Been known to stop in and have a drink with him from time to time.  He’s been known to keep me informed about unruly sheriffs.”

“So you’ve been keeping an eye on me?” Jensen asked as he pushed Jared away.

The back of Jared’s knee hit the bed just the way Jensen remembered and he watched as the taller man fell back onto the mattress.

“Always,” Jared admitted.  “Never been anyone else in my heart, Jensen.  Never could be, the way you took it and folded it up and kept it in your pocket all these years.  Just waited for you to be ready to hear it again.  I couldn’t bear not to know you were safe out here though.”

Jensen straddled Jared’s thighs and set his arms on Jared’s shoulders as he leaned in.  “Tell me,” he whispered as his lips brushed Jared’s.

Jared’s eyes closed and his lips parted in a moan.  “I missed you, Jensen.  I need you to come home to me.”

“Why?”

“I love you.”

Jensen smiled at him.  “Don’t know if a lawman should be tempted so easily by a smuggler like yourself.”

“I could smuggle you off?” Jared suggested.  “Or just kidnap you from under the nose of your deputy.  It would definitely put the tongues to wagging in these parts.”

“You do like to earn your reputation.”

“Come with me, Jensen.  Be with me.  You can make your data base and we’ll hunt together like we used to.”

“And your crew?”

“They’ll love you, or they’ll leave.  It’s a simple choice.”

“A hunter, an angel, a demon, and a researcher.  Not sure there is anything simple in that equation, Jared.”

“Do you love me?” Jared asked.

Jensen stared at Jared a moment before he nodded.  “I do.”

“Simple as that.”

“Yeah, I guess it is.”

 

**

 

Jensen didn’t make it back to town by morning, but by the time Deputy Henriksen tried to check on the Hunter, it was long gone.  Victor got a message that night about what he was doing and Victor let everyone know about the sheriff’s kidnapping at the hands of the notorious Captain Padalecki.

Of course, as such tales went, there were some who said the captain swept Jensen off his feet and he was charmed straight into his bed.  There were others who said it was the captive that so entranced the captain that he couldn’t sell him to the Morgan gang who had paid for the kidnapping to begin with.

Jensen created his data base and worked to expand it with each new hunt.  Every planet, every creature that popped up in the terraformed lands the Central Isle created, Jensen tested and learned and compared and eventually added to his data base.  
The angel became his best friend and the demon was his best ally when he was in the mood for trouble.

As for the captain, he’d set his heart on Jensen and he had him.  Jensen had never wanted to be a peace keeper and his time as a lawman made him appreciate the life he lived all the more.   He warmed Jared’s bed, shared his heart, and worked side by side with him.

And if he sometimes found himself keeping the peace between Jared’s ragtag crew, he was happy enough with that.

After all, he’d had the star on his lapel once.  He’d just turned that in to keep metal under his feet, the family business in his blood, and the stars in his heart.


End file.
